Spreading deadly pathogens under the disguise of popular music | Hacker News Reader

Spreading deadly pathogens under the disguise of popular music

dl.acm.org

119 pointsRansomStark21 comments

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The article is about using sound to compromise negative pressure rooms.

From the headline, I was hoping for some kind of memetic Snow Crash type pathogen that infects you when you hear it

There's also the (fictional) visual attack: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BLIT_(short_story)

Audio pathogen was a plot point in Mark Waid's "Irredeemable" comic series.

A variation on this was a key plot point to Westworld season four.

At first I thought this was click bait, too. But actually..

TL;DR take: Hospitals and labs contain deadly pathogens in regions of lowered air pressure. Sophisticated electronics monitor pressure and control the evacuation system accordingly. Many such spaces have resonant frequencies in the audio range. Ergo, it's possible to play specific tones through an entertainment system to establish significant deviation from the average pressure to fool the sensors, and disrupt the containment. Such tones could be embedded in pop music.

Wow.

> Moreover, we demonstrate our attack at a real-world NPR located in an anonymous bioresearch facility, which is FDA approved and follows CDC guidelines.

Wow indeed. A real-world life hack!

Sony’s back with another root kit?!

Seriously though, that is a cool paper. Helps reinforce how much we need more adversarial testing, even for mundane things.

arxiv link for anyone interested in the full article: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2210.03688.pdf

Yet another reason why non-headphone/amplified audio in work/public places is terrible.

This is a cool paper! An area I didn’t know existed and how critical security is to this. Really showed me a new thing today. Thanks for posting it

Wow. To summarize: Listening to Taylor Swift (in a NPR) can lead to the destruction of humanity!

To ensure complete obliteration of the planet's life forms, a second attack with Celine Dion is recommended. Refer to the instruction booklet in the box for further details. Or call our hotline at 0-0800-ACME-MUSICAL-PLANET-OBLITERATOR

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33682057

Previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33347967

This is obviously about autotune's evil empire. Right?

Pretty sweet paper. First time the clickbait title actually turned out to be accurate

It's not difficult to spread something that's already popular.

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